


Sunk Ships

by kaasknot



Series: Brooklyn Blabbermouth [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Gang AU, Gen, POV Outsider, Racial slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:04:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2750408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaasknot/pseuds/kaasknot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hey, did you hear? Local doc got knocked off by a Nazi spy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunk Ships

Hey, did you hear? Local doc got knocked off by a Nazi spy. Hand to God I ain't makin' this up, couldn't if I tried. Nazis came in and greased him right there in his lab. If we ain't safe on the home front, how the hell is this war gonna go, huh? I mean, shit. The _bosses_ ain't even had an easy time of it.

What? _No._ Nossir, I don't know nothin'.

I, uh. Look. You's dressed clean, yeah? But you ain't Cosa or Kosher, anyone can see that from a mile away. You look like you's _somebody_ , and I'm thinkin' I oughtta clam up, you see? No offense, or nothin'.

Nah, you don't--I'm fine right here, you don't need to--hey, you lookin' for me to owe you, or somethin'? 'Cause I can get my own drinks. Yeah, "free." Free, my lily-white ass.

Why you wanna know so bad, anyway?

 _Yeah_ , it "caused a stir," Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. I don't know what they tell you high-falutin' types 'bout Brooklyn, but it ain't all Tommies all the time, alright? Most of us is just folks, same's you. Well. Maybe less well-fed, but otherwise. And the biggies hereabouts? They's good people, too, more or less. This ain't Queens or the Bronx. Sure, Stuyvesant's a bit rough, and the Navy Yards are--Yeah, anyway. Point is, once you learn the ropes it's home, y'know? And the heavies don't let loose without damn good reason.

Doc Erskine's been part'a the neighborhood for, what, four years, now? Wasn't right, the way he got popped off like that, in the middle of mindin' his own business. And it wasn't just him they killed, they got a couple'a local mooks out front in the crossfire, too. So when the gangs stepped in, well, we wasn't exactly gonna tell 'em "no," was we.

But--you wanna hear somethin' really wild? No, this'll knock your socks off, I swear to God. You know--no, you wouldn't know him, but there's this local kid, Steve Rogers. Only thing you gotta know about Steve Rogers is that he's short, righteous, and the stubbornest bastard you ever did meet. Anyway, heard it through the grapevine that he'n Doc Erskine been meetin' for the past month or so, ever since his best pal James Barnes got drafted.

Man, and that's a story and a half, too--Barnes tried to dodge, nearly got himself arrested 'fore Miss Carter--that's his girl--up and flat _told_ him to go, 'less he wanted more trouble'n he could deal with. Said she'd keep an eye on Rogers for him. It was a big stink that everybody watched and nobody admitted to. Barnes made sergeant, last I heard, got shipped off to Italy. And Rogers, whoo boy, was he madder'n a wet cat 'bout gettin' left behind. Kept tryin' to enlist, even though he's got 4-F stamped across his forehead for everyone to see 'cept himself. And that's where Doc Erskine comes in, 'cause it ain't a secret he's been doin' stuff with eugenics.

Steve Rogers, he don't got what you'd call the best genes. I never met his da, he died a year or two after the war, but the little neighborhood grannies say he was tougher'n woodpecker lips 'fore the mustard gas got him. Rogers's ma, though... pretty sure a stiff breeze could'a knocked her flat. It's God's own miracle she didn't kill herself squeezing Rogers's fat head out, if you don't mind me sayin'. If there was ever a candidate for testing the betterment of the human race, you won't never find a better one than Steven Grant Rogers.

That's what I heard, anyway. But see, thing is, I haven't seen Steve in damn near a week. No one has. And that picture in the Examiner? It looked an awful lot like him. Only the man in the picture, he wasn't so little, was he? You know what I think happened? I think Doc Erskine _did_ somethin' 'fore he kicked it, and I think Steve Rogers was right in the middle of it. Think maybe Erskine finally found that "good man" he kept goin' on about, though everybody on the damn block knows that Hothead Rogers was already a better man than most--

Whassat? Pff, couldn't'a told you if I wanted to. He's gone to ground if he ain't dead, too. But Peggy Carter could tell you. She knows more 'bout what happens in this neighborhood than anyone I know.

A gossip? Can't say as she is, no. But Miss Carter, she, uh, she knows people, you see? She's got her ear to the ground, and the ground's been pretty noisy since ol' Abe Erskine, rest his soul, bit the dust.

You know, just had a thought, but I don't think Erskine was his real name? Don't make a damn bit of sense for a German Jew to have a Scottish name. Or for a Jew to be in eugenics, though guess it kinda speaks to why the Nazis were after him... 

Already? Shit, I was just gettin' started. Well, thanks for the beer. Yeah, you too, Mr. Brandt. You ain't so bad, you know? You's on the level.


End file.
